CareerEdge recently released an independent analysis that finds that it is producing millions of dollars in new wages and economic impact for the Manatee-Sarasota region. The analysis also documents why the organization’s innovative approach could serve as a high-impact, cost-effective workforce-training model for the rest of Florida.
The analysis finds that $1.54 million in investments by CareerEdge in 2011 and 2012 will result in nearly $3 million in annual earnings increases for incumbent workers at local employers, and more than $5.6 million in new annual wages for jobseekers placed in new positions. The regional impact of those investments includes nearly $4.3 million in new, “value added” income that is being pumped into the local economy.
The most tangible impacts on workers, according to the analysis, are the pay raises and new wages they earn as a result of CareerEdge training programs. The study found that 883 incumbent workers who participated will increase their household income by $3,376 per year.
CareerEdge also helped place 284 jobseekers into new positions in 2011, including 139 previously unemployed individuals. Those former jobseekers will earn $5.62 million a year in new wages.
While the study focused on the real-world impacts on individual workers, it also reports that local employers—the other “customer” in the CareerEdge training model—and the regional economy as a whole are benefitting substantially. All told, workers who started their CareerEdge training in either 2011 or 2012 will earn an added $8.59 million per year, $4.28 million of which is new, “value added” income for the regional economy. Through spending, the economic “multiplier effect” of that new income is nearly $3 million per year in income to other local businesses and workers.
The analysis suggests that CareerEdge’s career-laddering model could double the region’s rate of job creation, and do so eight to 10 times more cost-effectively than prevailing workforce models.
The analysis shows that CareerEdge has helped existing training programs, like those at local community colleges, evolve their offerings to meet the real-time market needs of employers. Now CareerEdge is asking local manufacturers, large and small, to help identify training needs in their sector.
You can read the full analysis the CareerEdge website www.CareerEdgeFunders.org